Police are probing a missing window of time between a mysterious triple-zero phone call and the death of a woman who plunged from a seven storey balcony.
Emergency services were called to a unit block on River Road in Parramatta about 1.40am on Thursday.
Officers arrived at the scene and discovered the woman, believed to be aged 39, on the street with critical injuries.
Moments before, horrified onlookers had seen her hanging from the balcony.
Despite efforts to revive the woman, she was pronounced dead at the scene. She is yet to be formally identified.
A 40-year-old man was arrested at the scene and questioned by police. He has since been released without charge as investigations continue.
It emerged on Thursday afternoon that a triple-zero call had been made from the apartment at 11.45pm – almost two hours before the woman fell to her death.
Nothing was said on the call but the operator could hear ‘raised voices’ in the background.
Forensics are seen at the balcony crime scene in Parramatta, western Sydney, where a woman is believed to have fallen to her death during the early hours of Thursday
What appeared to be a blood stain could be seen in the cordoned off crime scene
Police eventually rang the number back and spoke to the man at the property, who revealed his name and address.
Officers confirmed that they would visit the property but did not arrive until after the woman fell from the balcony.
‘Part of the investigation will be a review of a triple-zero call made to police radio about 11.45pm last night,’ Detective Superintendent Barry Vincent said.
‘There was no conversation during that call and despite a further two calls from triple-zero back to the caller contact could not be established.
‘Officers from Parramatta Police Area command were able to make contact with that number at 11.47pm, whereupon they spoke with a man and he was able to provide an address and his name and where the call had originated from.
He added: ‘Police advised the man that they would be in attendance at his apartment.
‘Following that phone call police attended other calls for assistance and shortly before 1.40am police received calls from a neighbour at unit block River Road following reports of a female person hanging from a balcony.’
‘That call was received at 1.40am and at 1.41am our officers responded to that scene whereupon they found a woman in the driveway of a unit block and they immediately commenced CPR. Despite their best efforts, the woman died at the scene.’
The woman died at the scene after police were called to the complex at 1.40am
Detectives were seen arriving at the unit block on River Road on Thursday morning
Superintendent Vincent revealed that there had been ‘previous interactions’ with the police and the pair in question and that the man had an AVO taken out against the woman.
He said police ‘receive calls similar to this quite often and it is our usual practice to attend and confirm that everything is okay’.
‘Following attendance at a number of other addresses in response to other jobs they were en route to that address when that (second) call for assistance came.’
He added: ‘These are assessments our officers make routinely, the decision-making around that is obviously something that we will be looking at.’
Sai Pamula, who lives in the building, said he heard a ‘loud smashing noise’ and rushed down to the street where he saw two men and the woman.
‘Her partner was not panicked, he was calm and just kept saying ‘she is not breathing, she is not breathing’,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
He asked the other man to call the police. They came and did CPR.’
Mr Pamula said he’d been told that the couple were allegedly arguing in the street earlier that evening.
Police were seen stopping and interviewing residents as they left the underground parking
The apartment tower on River Road, Parramatta, is just metres from a light rail station
A resident is seen peering out the window of his unit as police continued their investigations
Residents woke on Thursday to find their apartment tower surrounded by police
‘People tried to intervene but he was just not listening to them,’ he added.
Uniformed officers were also seen canvassing residents at the apartment tower.
A female neighbour on the top floor said her child was awoken by the couple’s ‘screaming and shouting’.
‘They were swearing at each other on and off throughout the night. I heard the word ‘ungrateful’ at one point,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘It sounded like something was thrown in the flat. And then I heard a big thump and saw all the sirens.’
Another neighbour who lives six floors above the balcony said he heard a ‘piercing’ scream at 12.47am.
‘I was half asleep watching TV in our sitting room and I heard a distinctive female scream. I rang my partner, who was in the other room, to ask if it was her,’ he said.
The man went to bed but understood the gravity of the situation the next morning when officers were cordoning off the street.
‘I think she (the victim) landed in the flower bed,’ he said.
‘It’s so awful. The innocence of the building is totally gone.’
Anyone with information has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
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